53 Days: The Abduction of Mary Stauffer

In 1980, school teacher Mary Stauffer (Alyson Hannigan) and her eight-year old daughter Beth are kidnapped by her former student Ming Sen Shiue. They are held captive for 53 days. It's a straight forward Lifetime woman-in-trouble movie. Alyson is good. Most of the actors are fine. Everything is fine and nothing's great.

This review isn't to discredit the ordeal Mary and her daughter went through, but to critique the acting and direction. Horrible!! I've seen better acting from Lifetime and I'm very disappointed in their low budget production of this true story. They sugar coated what happens to Mary and her daughter and should have focused more on making this feel less like a mediocre cry for their fan base. The camera is often unsteady and the actors talk like they are reading from que cards

Since this movie is based on a true story, it is difficult to be hyper critical. I will say Alyson Hannigan's portrayal of Mary Stauffer was layered and well acted. Nice to see her step out of her comfort zone!

The acting is truly awful, as for the one playing Ming, please go back to drama school, a lump of cardboard would have acted better.

This true story deserved a lot better actors to tell it.

Over the top tamed down version of events. Made for tv event, really.

These true stories SHOULD be treated as true stories and not some cleaned up version. It's a disservice.